Dirty Old Town
RedMum | May 29, 2006NO surprises there then. Dublin fared very badly in a nationwide litter survey carried out by the Irish Business Against Litter.
While towns all over the country made great gains, Dublin is classed as a litter blackspot.
Smithfield was described as an ‘absolute disgrace’; the Quays ‘unsightly’ and Moore Street as an ongoing problem.
Blame was laid on Dublin City Council but I don’t think that is entirely fair because to me the people who walk along dropping litter as they go bear more responsibility. Can you blame a local authority for the dirty b*stards that live within their areas.
Certainly there is no doubt that local authorities have a responsibility to keep our streets clean, but it’s an uphill and expensive job in Dublin and this is backed up by what I see everyday.
The worst thing about this is that more money than is right is already spent cleaning up after the lazy b*stards I have alreay mentioned. Let us be clear about this, this is money that could be directed to say playgrounds but is spent brushing-up streets, clearing up illegal dumping, and all it takes is for people to have some civic pride. However that pride is lacking.
Should I expect people to have that pride, not at all, but I do expect people to know that dropping the wrapper from their chips in the middle of a street and not in a bin, is wrong, unsightly and makes our communities a litter bug’s dream and an eyesore to live with.
There have been a couple of occasions where I have lifted people’s discarded rubbish and went after them saying ‘oh excuse me you dropped this! And in most cases I have been told to ‘f*ck off’.
Charming indeed but not nearly as charming as their compulsion to pollute our streets.
Since my daughter was small NOT dropping litter has been what I consider an important lesson and one that would later become the bane of my life on washing days, she holds litter in her pockets. Well thats the way it should be.
Now back to the Irish Business Against Litter, wouldn’t it also make sense as I posted about here before to negotiate with Dublin City Council to have commerical rubbish collections lifted in the early morning.
When they do this, I will probably take their campaign (as good as it is) more seriously.
As your picture shows, there really are two problems. One is waste removal. Businesses and residences need to be able to throw away trash. We have to buy our stickers and put out our trash on certain days. But then the people don’t pick it up! There have been bags of trash outside my building for up to three days! By this time, the tags have been ripped off and people have thrown rubbish on top of them.
The other problem is littering. People do litter a ton here. I wonder if there were a fine for littering (that the garda actually gave out) if that would change things. Then the fine money could help build the playgrounds or keep the streets clean. As far as street sweepers, I see them far less here than I did when I lived in the States. There was a clearly marked street cleaning schedule.
However, here there are people picking up the litter after us. Why should people throw their rubbish in the bin when there are people around city centre there picking it up off the ground?
There are litter wardens and they can give fines, but has anyone ever seen one?
I’ve always been embarrassed about the filthy state of Dublin and the people who couldn’t care less about it- especially in my travels when people comment that they’ve been to my home town. I wait while they list the good bits then cringe when the inevitable ‘but it was very dirty’ ends the story.
What Ireland needs is a simple litter campaign like the brilliant one launched in Australia a few years back; filming members of the public littering then the large caption “Don’t be a TOSSER!” appears. This was backed up with billboard, bus stop and even rubbish bin adverts. It was very affective, while the litter problem in Aus is nothing compared to Ireland, occasionally you’d see a kid shouting “don’t be a tosser” at some passing litterbug.
If only Ireland could get this creative.
I was watching this post time ago. I strongly agree. I would liek to say some stories
1) There are just 1 month before when i was walking in fairview strand and somebody opened his window of his car and droped in the pedestrian a bag with the rest of his food.I told him what “do you see what are you doing?” He answered me “F::off”
2)I was in the bus upstairs and somebody was cleaning the widescreen with his shoes.
3)In the bus again every evening after 6 o clock you can hear the empty bottles below the seats. And that becuse somebody has forgotten to take his beer or his orange juice and drop it in the first bin outside.
4)In the bus agin somebody was spiting and nobody was saying anything.
5)When i was walking in Grafton street 2 girls were eating their food and they droped their napkins in the street as normal
6)Late at night and somebody decided to pee in the door of bank of ireland (Talbot stree)
7)In luas 3 girls were leaving their seats and they left 6 bottles and some napkins everywhere
8)Marino crescent D3. Girls after school. Everyday they visit the park, they use to eat or drink. After 2 o clock the prk seats are a disgusting view becuase of bottles, napkins, rest of food. And this happens every day.
9)Boys are playing foodball in marino crescent park. After that the green park is a kind of scrap heap
10)Firview park. Somebody was mking his water without shame. Is just miday
11)Walking in swords park and 3 girls was behind me. One of those didn’t want her juice anymore and droped it in the middle of the green grass.
Some of my examples
Do we feel proud about this
And the best. A friend of mine came from Berlin and he told me. How can you live in this city? It;s disgusting!!!
If you thing that you can support the anti-litter campaign in dublin it would be pleasure for me to help you.
Finally I have found a place where people are expressing their disgust at litter in Dublin!!! I have been harping on for years about it!! I asked Bertie Aherne once what he would do about it and he simply shook his head and said” Shocking , isn’t it?”. If that idiot doesn’t care, what are we to do? I have thought of a campaign much like the aussie one mentioned earlier. A video and billboard campaign making litterbugs out to be total tossers or Wankers. I find it unbelievable that women will buy (sh*t) food in Mcdonmalds, and then leave all of the rubbish behind them on a wall before getting into a car with kids. Scumbags, who are destroying this city, and who are living off every taxpayer in the country, are disgusting!!! They walk straight by bins and toss chip bags everywhere. Buses are cleaned every night at the depots, but the Irish filth don’t care and think they are travelling in a mobile dustbin. It’s a culutral or lack of culural thing in this country. The Irish are the knackers of the world. Makes me ashamed to be Irish.
I’ve been living in Dublin for 9 months and i don’t do the same mistake again. Irish need a lot of education. It seems that they don’t understand the dirt. The problem with cleaness it’s nothing comparing the all the other problems of this awful city. Ireland is one of the richest country of eu and at the same time less rich countries like Sweeden, Germany, Italy they have better transports (subway), better health and education. What on earth u do the money in Ireland. So much vanity and misery. Spend them for something usefull.
I think that the kids are very dirty in ireland cause of the bad education. They dont learn how to use their brain at all. I never saw so rough and snobby country before. Over in Denmark if u litter the same day u end up to prison. And people support that. They dont just obey the rules. People know that this law must work all time. In Ireland nothing like that. The kids are really wild animals.
What makes me crazy is why when somebody sees people littering don’t say a word, just don’t do it. That’a what i mean bad education.
Mikael,
People dont say anything because if you do, you are likely to get smacked or verbally abused – on a related topic, I had the audacity to ask some scumbag to stop smoking on a bus and he got so abusive I wondered why I had bothered to get involved…
I’ve been living in Dublin for 8 years (I come from South Africa). I love many aspects of life in Ireland, but the filth is not one of them. Litter and general disrespect for the environment is not confined to Dublin; the countryside is not much better. It is difficult, when walking or driving anywhere in Ireland, to find a square metre of ground free of litter.
I hate to generalise, but in this case it seems justified. The Irish have no sense of civic pride.
I don’t think that the litter fines could sort it. It’s on their culture and their education to leave stuff everywhere and drop things in the middle of the street. I think it’s the dirtiest place of Europe. Ireland needs a good education system. No campaigns they are all useless. People need to learn how to react from the first ages. Based on the psychological tests it’s impossible to change completely the attitude of a 20 years old adult. The Irish have a very rough and aggressive behavior especially against the foreigners and the most of them don’t pay any attention for the cleanness. What I saw in Ireland is that all the kids must finish the school which doesn’t provide any basic social education at all, However this is my opinion but I am free to go anywhere and It’s not my business what they wanna do. The problem is that I have seen Irish in Zurich airport dropping napkins and food in the middle of the corridors feeling no respect even for one of the most places of the world. I saw Irish drinking and fighting on the beach on Spain, Italy and Malta. Enough is enough. Ireland shouldn’t be a part of eu. It doesn’t fit it.